Not so many years ago, Bicycle NSW and over 30 councils worked incredibly hard to map a network of connected bike infrastructure for Greater Sydney.
The resulting Principal Bicycle Network, or PBN, was intended to be a blueprint for the delivery of all the cycleways Transport for NSW committed to in Future Transport Strategy 2056.
The draft plans were completed by November 2019. However, they were never published.
The PBN has since attained a rather mythical status among the bicycle advocacy community!
The PBN built on the success of early separated bicycle path projects in the City of Sydney such as the Kent Street cycleway, finished in 2011 (Image: Bicycle NSW)
The 2020 campaign for transparency
Frustrated by the secrecy around the PNB, Bicycle NSW worked with Cate Faehrmann MLC, the Greens member of the Legislative Council and Active Transport portfolio holder, to push Transport for NSW into releasing the map.
By 2020, this was increasingly urgent. Bicycle NSW was asked by Transport for NSW to nominate routes for pop-up cycleways that would support COVID-safe travel. It was essential to ensure that proposed pop-ups aligned with the PBN so that taxpayer funds were not wasted on delivering bike infrastructure in the wrong place.
Ms Faehrmann called on the government to release the PBN on World Bicycle Day in June 2020. Neither the NSW Government nor the Hon. John Graham MLC, then in opposition, opposed the motion to release the map.
The very same day, the then Minister for Transport and Roads, the Hon. Andrew Constance MP, proactively sent a draft copy of the PBN to Ms Faehrmann in the form of a high-level map.
However, when Bicycle NSW attempted to release the map publicly, TfNSW immediately asked that the map be withdrawn from public view. Despite negotiations with Transport for NSW over many months, the map remained unpublished.
Subsequently, the former NSW Government quietly shelved the PBN and instead launched the Strategic Cycleway Corridors program. This program is ongoing and despite years’ of effort to develop designs and business cases, none of the priority cycleway corridors have been built.
In 2026, the PBN will help Bicycle NSW change gears
As our Members will know, Bicycle NSW is currently drafting a strategic advocacy plan for NSW. The working title is 'Changing Gears: A decade of making local trips by walking and riding the best choice for everyone in NSW'.
We want to convince governments to fund and fast-track priority cycling and walking infrastructure projects that are vital for healthy, fair, prosperous and liveable towns and cities. Changing Gears will provide important evidence to inspire politicians to lead change.
A key part of the work is to model demand and how that grows as a connected bicycle network is delivered.
The PBN needs to be updated but it remains the most evidence-based and complete proposal for Greater Sydney, the Illawarra, the Central Coast and the Hunter. It is the essential starting point for our advocacy plan.
We have revisited our communications with Transport from 2020 and see no reason not to use the map, or share it with the bicycle community.
So here it is!
The draft copy of the PBN map released to Ms Faehrmann in June 2020
We now need an electronic version of the PBN
A paper map, while useful, provides only limited information. The scale is too small, and it is not easy to understand which roads or other corridors are proposed for the cycleways.
A digital shapefile of the Tier 1 and Tier 2 network would allow Bicycle NSW and other advocates to properly understand where the network has, and has not, been delivered, and to target our advocacy accordingly.
Without it, Bicycle NSW will need to divert scarce resources into recreating the map from scratch - resources better spent elsewhere. This makes no sense at all when Transport for NSW already holds this information electronically, and when both the previous and current ministers supported its release.
Bicycle NSW has written to the Minister for Transport requesting that Transport for NSW provides a GIS shapefile of the 2020 PBN map for Greater Sydney and, if possible, the outer Metro areas.
We will let you know how we go.
How to support Bicycle NSW's work
Bicycle NSW has been campaigning for a better environment for bike riding for almost 50 years. It is the only bicycle advocacy group based in NSW with full time staff advocating every day for all riders. Each year we write more than 60 submissions and letters to councils, ministers, government bodies and Transport for NSW. This is more than all the other state peak bodies combined!
But did you know that we are funded only by membership fees and donations?
Join Bicycle NSW today and be part of a movement dedicated to safer streets and better infrastructure.